"Corruptoin and Coercion: The Year in Elections 2017Pippa Norris, Thomas Wynter and Sarah Cameron

Mar 2018

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1.Overview

Elections provide the main opportunities for citizens to participate in politics and hold leaders to account. When they work well, elections can deepen civic engagement, inform public debate, stimulate party competition, facilitate peaceful leadership transitions, hold governments to account, and allow the non-violent resolution of political conflict.

The problem is that too often contests fail to achieve these objectives. There is widespread concern about falling turnout, public disaffection, party polarization, and the failure of elections to ensure legitimate outcomes. Electoral malpractices continue to undermine contests around the world, from overt cases of violence and intimidation to more subtle disinformation campaigns, barriers to fair party competition, and the under-representation of women and minority candidates. Most election results are not rejected outright or overturned but they are commonly flawed.

The new report presents the latest results of the Perception of Electoral Integrity rolling survey drawn from 3,235 experts who evaluated 285 national parliamentary and presidential elections in 164 countries worldwide from July 2012 to December 31 2017. The latest release adds 44 election evaluations for contests held during 2017.

2. Highlights of the Results

The key findings are:

* The stubborn persistence of major electoral malpractices, particularly problems of money and media evident as the weakest stages of the electoral cycle across many countries. * The problems of coercion and corruption, generating bloodshed, weakening legitimacy, and eroding democracy. * The rise of new challenges, including from authoritarian-populist parties, cybersecurity risks of foreign hacking, and social media misinformation campaigns.

. . .

3. The Year in elections: 2017

Major contrasts were observed worldwide in elections held during 2017.

Several Northern European countries continue to rank at the top of the PEI scale worldwide, scoring over 80%, including Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Austria, all scoring highly in the quality of their elections. At the same time, many of these contests saw growing strength for authoritarian-populist parties, which may have broader consequences for liberal democratic norms. Across Europe, the average share of the vote won by these parties for the lower house in national parliamentary elections in Europe has more than doubled since the 1960s, from around 5.4% to 12.4% today.

Several developing countries also achieved moderate levels of electoral integrity, including contests last year in Nepal and Bulgaria, as well as Albania, the Bahamas, and Liberia.

At the lower end of the spectrum, deeply flawed and even failed contests last year were in Honduras, Turkmenistan, Papua New Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, and the Republic of Congo.

Many countries see stable PEI ratings from election to election, but others have seen sharper declines across successive contests. In Rwanda, for example, following a successful legislative election in 2013, the 2017 presidential election was far more problematic, particularly on electoral laws.

Democracy requires many institutions to work effectively – competitive political parties, an independent judiciary, a vigilant free press, oversight by parliamentary bodies, and constitutional checks and balances preventing the abuse of power by the executive. But elections with integrity are the core foundation linking citizens with the state, underpinning the accountability of office-holders to voters. The PEI Index is correlated with quality of liberal democracy, estimated by the Varieties of Democracy project.

Blunt Honesty: President Trump Highlights Lack of Reform Within DOJ and FBI…

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In an interesting set of tweets today President Trump highlights the institutions of the DOJ and FBI with separate and blunt emphasis.

Toward the DOJ, President trump notes the relationship between Deputy AG Bruce Ohr, his wife Nellie Ohr as a Fusion GPS contractor and Christopher Steele the author of the “phony and discredited Dossier”, also a Fusion GPS contractor. All of the entities were paid by Hillary Clinton through her legal representation.

Additionally, President Trump highlights the lack of DOJ leadership (specifically AG Jeff Sessions) to address the institutional corruption which led to “spygate” and a fraudulent application for an unlawful FISA application.

{2 POTUS Tweets}

. . .

In the second set of tweets, President Trump noted how officials within the FBI are continuing to obstruct oversight and refuse to turn over evidence of institutional corruption. In a pointed question President Trump asks: “What are they hiding”?

{2 more POTUS Tweets}

The overall message delivered by President Trump highlights the ongoing institutional issues which are not being addressed by either AG Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray; both are acting as corruption monitors; neither are confronting it.

And within this dynamic we accept events as they appear:

•After the IG report on the Clinton investigation, Director Wray took no action to address the issues of the deeply political FBI; and no-one within the organization has been held accountable. With the single exception of McCabe, all former corrupt officials have been permitted to exit with full benefits and pensions intact.

•Additionally, there is no effort on behalf of the DOJ to follow-up on the IG criminal referral to charge former Asst. FBI Director Andrew McCabe for lying to the FBI, leaking information to the media and using his office/position to influence an official investigation.

•Worse yet, there is an ongoing and highly visible DOJ leadership effort to cover-up the gross criminal behavior of the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee Security staff, James Wolfe. Despite overwhelming evidence that James Wolfe leaked top secret and highly classified intelligence to the media, the DOJ has only charged Wolfe with one much lesser crime of lying to the FBI.

Initially, through 2017, CTH was optimistic that Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray would take action to: (A) reveal the scale and scope of the prior DOJ/FBI activity; and (B) bring criminal charges against those officers who engaged in a conspiracy to influence the 2016 election and overthrow a duly elected President. However, in the face of overwhelming evidence highlighting the Sessions/Wray emphasis we now clearly see the only goal is preservation of the institutions.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is willfully blind. FBI Director Christopher Wray is also demonstrably corrupt, and willfully blind. Both are working against the interests of justice in their efforts to protect Washington DC from sunlight. Both are allowing officials within their organizations to continue conspiring to protect their former colleagues.

If the MAGA community can all pull together and win the 2018 Mid-Term election; I am almost positive President Trump will fire the failing leadership of both the FBI and DOJ. President Trump’s personal efforts to win and hold position in the November elections is essentially a visible display of his intent toward that objective.

@RachelTobac 9h9 hours agoMoreAt @defcon hacking conference and just learned how easy it is to physically gain admin access on a voting machine that is used in 18 states. Requires no tools and takes under 2 minutes. I’m concerned for our upcoming elections.

J. Alex Halderman‏

@jhalderm 11h11 hours agoMoreSo great to see election officials and technologists join forces at @VotingVillageDC and apply their collective experience to strengthening security. When we work together, voter confidence doesn't have to be a matter of faith--we can have evidence-based elections.

J. Alex Halderman‏

@jhalderm 12h12 hours agoMore J. Alex Halderman Retweeted J. Alex HaldermanThis is why we need voter-verified paper ballots and manual post-election audits of the paper. That's the only practical, low-cost defense that can detect and correct attacks like we showed.

J. Alex Halderman‏

@jhalderm 12h12 hours agoMoreJust stole an election at @VotingVillageDC. The machine was an AccuVote TSX used in 18 states, some with the same software version. Attackers don't need physical access--we showed how malicious code can spreads from the election office when officials program the ballot design.

Diebold TSX

*Active Diebold TSX voting machines were found to be running on expired SSL certificates (2013) which makes these machines vulnerable to any vulnerabilities catalogued since then, and to hackers who could exploit the specifically on these machines. Diebold machine hacks are also easily hackable.

*A hacker was able to reprogram a Diebold TSX to play gifs and music after uploading a Linux operating system. While this can not be easily carried out in the time it may take a voter to vote, it illustrates the malleability of these systems.

*The quickest exploit was done by an 11 year-old in 10 minutes {no explanation why one paragraph says the quickest exploit was in 2 minutes and this one says in 10 minutes} kids were given an introductory walkthrough of how to perform an SQL injection. From there they ran with it and were able to complete the hacks.

*Kids tampered with vote tallies, party names, candidate names, etc; Total vote counts were changed to numbers like 12 billion and candidate names were changed to things like "Bob Da Builder" or "Richard Nixon's Head".

kiniry @kiniry * Aug 10In advance of the @VotingVillageDC, ES&S sent a message to customers with their comments about the hacknig village and the security of their machines. I've attached my version of their memo here. Kudos to @KimZetter for her more constructive take on this letter.

{Letter:}

Today thousands of hackers will descend on Las Vegas to participate in an annual conference sponsored by DEF CON, an organization whose mission is to attempt to infiltrate different technologies. As they did last year, DEF CON organizers are again planning a voting system village (which is simply a room designated for voting system hacking) that will focus on public hacks of voting technology.

Given that this event is already gain wide media attention, we are proactively sharing with you what we know regarding DEF CON plans.

Will the voting system used by my juridsdiction be part of the DEF CON hack attempt?probably.

How did Def CON obtain voting equipment?Legally

Will DEF CON employ standard physical security processes?No, because adversaries have our voting systems and all of their firmware and software.

Will DEF CON be able to hack into these voting systems?Yes--physically, remotely, definitively.

Can you perform a cyber-attack on something that is not connected to the internet? Yes.What about the use of modems? Does that pose a security risk?Yes, an enormous one.

We hope you found this FAQ helpful. After DEF CON a report will be released explaining what random cybersecurity experts and kids have found.

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I realize that some are minimizing to out right poo-pooing/mocking the whole idea of hacking George Soros bought/owned/managed voting machines and their distribution.

I believe this effort in Las Vegas thoroughly trashed that failed debunking of the voting machine problem. There are usually lots of ways to skin a cat. The hackers at this conference had no problem hacking the machines--usually within 2 minutes.

imho, THIS NEEDS TO BE A SERIOUS MATTER OF PRAYER AND OF WRITING POTUS AND CONGRESS CRITTERS TO INSURE IT IS SOLVED BY MIDTERMS.

It sounds like POTUS is dedicated toward fixing things but I suspect he could use a groundswell of citizen INSISTENCE THAT HE DO SO.

A deeply disturbing report by the United Nations details rampant sexual exploitation of children by UN officials across the globe.ByMatt Agorist -August 12, 2018

A deeply disturbing report has finally been released by the United Nations detailing the rampant sexual exploitation of children by UN employees that is widespread, throughout multiple countries.

While pieces of the report were released previously, the full report, detailing the scope and horrifying nature of the abuse was only just released in July.

As Disobedient Media points out in a scathing report,

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The publication of a summary version of the report caused a global furor in 2002, eventually leading to some policy changes. However, these efforts have proven woefully insufficient in light of ongoing scandals, including but not limited to the recent Oxfam debacle, the Zoe’s Ark scandal, allegations of horrific sexual abuse in the Central African Republic by UN forces, and the Laura Silsby incident. All of these cases (and many others) occurred after the partialpublication of the UNHCR report, pointing to one unsavory conclusion:

Aid work is not a vehicle of charity, but is, in a very real sense, a cover for atrocity. It is a weapon, a blunt instrument of power that is wielded to exploit the most vulnerable populations in crisis around the world. We can now state that sentiment as fact, not opinion.

The report reads like a nightmare and states in part:

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“Agency workers from local and international NGOs as well as UN agencies are among the prime sexual exploiters of refugee children often using the very humanitarian assistance and services intended to benefit refugees as a tool of exploitation. Male national staff were reported to trade humanitarian commodities and services, including medication, oil, bulgur wheat, plastic sheeting, education courses, skills-training, school supplies etc., in exchange for sex with girls under 18. The practice appeared particularly pronounced in locations with significant and established aid programs.”

“There was compelling evidence of a chronic and entrenched pattern of this type of abuse in refugee camps in Guinea and Liberia in particular…The number of allegations documented, however, is a critical indicator of the scale of this problem as altogether 42 agencies and 67 individuals were implicated in this behavior…”

“Security and military forces including international and regional peacekeepers, national forces and police units are another significant category of exploiters. UN peacekeepers in Sierra Leone are alleged to be extensively involved in the sexual exploitation of children with the assessment team recording allegations against UNAMSIL peacekeepers from nine countries. Details of these allegations, which also require verification, have likewise been submitted to UNHCR.”

“The sex exploiters are men in the community with the money, power and influence: agency workers, peacekeepers, regional and national armed forces, teachers, police, businessmen, diamond miners, refugee leaders and logging company staff.”

. . .

One would think that this 2002 report would have curtailed at least some of the abuse when a portion of it was publicly released at the time. However, that appears not to have happened. As TFTP reported earlier this year, an outright frightening dossier released by a former senior United Nations official revealed that United Nations employees have carried out over 60,000 rapes in just the last decade. What’s more, the dossier estimates that the organization currently employs at least 3,300 pedophiles.

In just ten years, under the guise of rendering aid, the United Nations has literally been raping and pillaging countries across the world. The problem has gotten so out of hand that it prompted the former UN insider, Andrew Macleod, to blow the whistle and hand over the evidence to Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) Secretary Priti Patel.

. . .

According to Macleod, anyone who’s attempted to blow the whistle on the horrifyingly rampant abuse is silence and fired.

2 high level ranking elected members of the Democratic party were at the Hospital at the same time as Seth Rich's arriving or within a few minutes of Seth Rich arriving at the Hospital . . .

{A different source implicated the initial MD attending to Seth Rich. Then Trump sent his personal physician to take over care of Seth Rich. . . The original MD has evidently been implicated in the death of another individual perceived as a threat to the DIMRATS}

We know that gangbangers did not do it (kill Seth Rich).

Not one member of the DC Police went to the bar and asked which way Seth Rich went etc.

The common theme was that the Police never came and asked for their security cam videos.

Body cam footage is unavailable though regs say the record has to be kept for 65 years.

DC Police have not given an update on this murder in years. This is the only unsolved Caucasian DC murder in a decade. These are real stats.

$600,000 reward money offered . . .

We have the body cams on Las Vegas. We have the body cams on the Broward shooting. We don't have the body cams on the Seth Rich stuff.

We know there was an autopsy. "gunshot wounds to torso" and "homicide" ... that's all that was stated.

They wouldn't talk to us at the Synagog. No one wants to talk about this.

The BOLO has never been released--Who were they looking out for?

. . .

Every other murder in DC in the last 2 years has a youtube video about it. NOT Seth rich--the only one that doesn't have a youtube devoted to finding the killer.

DC solving rate on murders is 75% or more.

No DIMRAT party members has called out for justice in the Seth Rich murder.

Another gentleman died within 3 weeks of Seth Rich's death. We had talked to that person, before he died, too.

People need to come forward. kim.com--it's time for you to come forward . . . it's way past time.

WE have met with people in the Rayburn bldg in D.C. and given them information and it is clear they are ignoring the information.

Look at the hush money from Cloud Strike--2--6 figure payments

2 witnesses have mysteriously dropped dead involved with a lawsuit against the DNC--Seth Rich being one of them. Seth Rich & Sean Lucas

How many more people have to turn up dead before the good guys stand up {and do the right thing?}

The toxicology report & ballistic report have not been released.

No bullet casings were at the scene of Seth Rich's murder. They must tie back to SOMEONE's (specific) weapon.

Seth Rich had 2 cell phones--one of them for one week before he was gunned down.

DC Police were never told about the 2nd phone.

Nothing was taken from Seth Rich. He had expensive jewelry on.

Obama's atnys are suing us for investigating this . . . Folks don't tend to sue if you are wrong, if you are not over the target.

12) #Qanon posted a couple of links to pages on anti-trust and asked how it is that Google, Facebook and Twitter were allowed to gain dominance on social media.

. . .

15) The image #Qanon posted is from this page.The illusion of choice.#Qanon

{90% of American Media Controlled by 6 Corporations}

. . .

16) #Qanon updated us on the DNC lawsuit against the President, WikiLeaks and Russia.

. . .

17) The first link shows that Wikileaks has been served a summons to appear in court regarding the DNC lawsuit. #Qanon

. . .

19) The second link by #Qanon is about the Senate Intelligence Committee's request to have Assange testify in a closed-door meeting.

. . .

18) Here's the latest on the DNC lawsuit against Wikileaks and Assange. #Qanon

. . .

20) #Qanon said these people are stupid because asking Assange to testify will require him to prove where the DNC's emails came from.

They weren't hacked by Russia. They came from Seth Rich.

(Evidence is presented during the discovery phase of a trial.)

. . .

21) Going back to the media issue, #Qanon suggested that Bill Clinton set the stage for a media monopoly in 1996.

. . .

22) Link 1: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommu…Link 2:

. . .

27) #Qanon said recent events are aimed at preventing the public release of incriminating evidence against corrupt people. Lacking sufficient votes to win the House/Senate, option 2 is to start a war in the hopes of removing Trump from office.

. . .

28) Consider this: POTUS traveled to Singapore on June 9th.The unauthorized missile launch near Whidbey Island was June 10th.Kim Jong-un and Trump met for peace talks on June 12th.#Qanon

. . .

29) What would happen to Trump if a missile were successfully launched at North Korea (or Russia) while Kim Jong-un was meeting with him in Singapore?#Qanon

. . .

30) What lengths would corrupt people go to in order to prevent the public release of incriminating information against them?

(Remember— some will be charged with treason which carries the death penalty.)#Qanon

. . .

32) #Qanon's signature "Iron Eagle" was decoded in April as an anagram for Eager Lion, a NATO training exercise in Jordan which this year, coincided with Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement that Iran had violated the Iran deal by continuing its weapons program.

35) I'm not sure what the Eager Lion post indicates but my guess is that we're about to learn more about the Iran deal.

Another possibility is that Iron Eagle has multiple meanings and we're going to learn a new one.#Qanon36) #Qanon asked if it's normal to have this many congressmen resign or announce they're not running for re-election.

. . .

37) #Qanon posted a number of links that reveal the connections of the swamp.

. . .

38) #Qanon wrote:State Dept [HRC]>>Eric Schmidt>>Lisa Shields

The first link points to the Council of Foreign Relations Board of Directors. Lisa Shields is a spokesperson for the CFR.

. . .

39) If you haven't researched Eric Schmidt, this article is a great place to start. It details his professional and private life including how he came onboard as Google's CEO and his many extra-marital affairs including one with Lisa Shields.#Qanon

. . .

40) The next #Qanon link points to a story about Susan Molinari, a former congresswoman who joined Google's team.

62) #Qanon Link 2: Members of Congress have upped the ante against Antifa.

. . .

63) #Qanon link 3:There's a petition to recognize Antifa as a terrorist organization.petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/forma…64) Flashback to October 31 when #Qanon asked why the President allowed Antifa to operate.

How is POTUS always 5 steps ahead?

. . .

64) It's probably not necessary to recognize Antifa as a terrorist organization because they've been infiltrated by the military and the President is monitoring them.

[Smile for the Camera.]#Qanondigitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/cgi/viewconten…

. . .

65) The President just signed the National Defense Authorization Act which provides funding for the military.#Qanon

. . .

67) It's becoming more apparent each week that the meetings Trump's people had with Russians were contrived by his opponents to make it appear as if his team was colluding with them.#Qanon

. . .

68) #Qanon posted a link to an article about Omarosa Manigault Newman who released a recording of her firing by John Kelly.

The rest of the links lead to articles about the non-disclosure agreements signed by White House staff.

How many people have died under very unusual circumstances ( ARKANCIDE ) that stood in the way of the Clinton Crime Family’s rise to wealth and power? The deaths connected to the Clintons are so numerous and so suspicious that there is even a term for it… ARKANCIDE (Don Adams / Died January 7, 1997)

EARLY ARKANCIDE:

Long before Whitewater’s land flips made the Clinton’s circle of friends rich, many of the same players had been involved in a similar land swindle in Branson. Don Adams was a lawyer in Arkansas who got involved trying to help the people who were being swindled out of their life savings.

{QX NOTE: I realize that RC's have a YUGE vested interest in minimizing this horrendous 'problem.'

However, as the solid, factual, hard evidence reports pile up--it is fairly CLEAR that such goings on are NOT a 'mere' few cases way back when or very occasionally.

It is repeatedly clear that such goings on have long been endemic to the vast reaches of the RCC institution. Actually, it is hard to imagine such a widespread pedophile 'problem' without the higher-ups being very well aware of it, if not complicit themselves.

And, that, in fact, is what case after case reveals--Cardinals have been implicated repeatedly around the world, including IIRC, at the Vatican, itself.

We are all sinners--some choosing to confess, repent and receive Christ's Blood to save us by His Grace and enable us to live more and more in right standing with God as we earnestly endeavor to walk ever closer to Him.

However, while we pray for such guilty to confess and repent, we also owe it to God and the victims to not white-wash their activities. Nor should we whitewash the endemic cover-up policies and practices of the RCC for a VERY long time and still ongoing in far too many regions, if not generally.

Certainly it is always hazardous to judgmentally look down long haughty noses and pointy fingers at ANY evil doers, sinners--regardless of the sin.

I've lived long enough (parents had low class rentals all my growing up) to know that given certain DNA, certain childhood traumas and conditioning, most of us are almost capable of almost anything.

So humility is always in order.

Nevertheless, it is also important to call a spade a spade and it is fiercely important to protect our children and deliver whatever God ordained punishment is fitting to the perpetrators.}